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The proprietor of a thriving business, Brooks is also the co-owner of one of downtown Muncie’s most prominent buildings. If that wasn’t enough, he’s also serving on a local government board and his business donates services to local organizations.

Brooks likes to keep busy, in other words. It’s a practice that began when he was attending Ball State University nearly 20 years ago and founded what would become his landscape and lawn care company, Jay-Crew.

The Yorktown High School grad was working toward an accounting major at Ball State when he began working in lawn care at the Players Club, the golf course at Woodland Trails.

“Although I knew I would finish my degree, I couldn’t see myself working in an accounting firm for the rest of my life,” Brooks said.

Flash forward to the present; Jay-Crew employs 10 people throughout the year and during peak season — early March through early December — employs 37 people.

“During the winter, the 10 of us that stay all year are fixing equipment and selling jobs for the following year,” he said.

Jay-Crew has steadily grown since Brooks founded it.

“We just came off two record-breaking years for our company history,” he said. “Things have been good for us. We went from a million dollars in business to just shy of $3.5 million.”

Two major initiatives in the past three years have paid off, Brooks said. The first was an expansion into chemical lawn application. “It’s not a service we had done before.”

The other was a foray into the Indianapolis-area lawn care market.

“It’s grown enough in three years that we’re looking for a second location,” he said, adding that Jay-Crew’s customer base is pretty evenly split between commercial and residential.

It might be expected that, in a tough national economy, customers would retrench and cut expenses like landscaping and lawn care, but Brooks said that’s not been the case.

“We’re looking for a full-service customer who wants us to do everything,” he said. “Those type of incomes, they still have money. And the recession did take a toll on companies that were not well-run. Everything I read said the recession would weed out some people, and I think that’s true. Some of our competition has gone away.”

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But there’s more to Brooks than just his business.

Partnerships with organizations

Jay-Crew’s success has given Brooks the opportunity to provide services for local organizations at no cost or in an in-kind capacity.

“We’ve done that for 10-plus years,” Brooks said. “I think they called and asked us. We’ve taken that on ourselves to help out. We have it on our basic maintenance program. Once every two weeks we make sure all the weeds are out of it, mulch it and try to keep it consistently looking nice.”

Brooks said Jay-Crew has also “donated quite a bit of work” at Cornerstone Center for the Arts, and the center’s executive director, Robbie Tompkins, said the relationship was a good one.

“They installed planter boxes at our main entrance, on our north parking lot,” Tompkins said. “They provide, through a sponsorship, in-kind services for us. We thank them in our marketing materials and list them as a partner.

“They’ve been very diligent in taking care of the plants there and keeping them watered. We’re looking at an expansion of our parking lot and redoing it, putting a greenbelt along Madison Street. Jason will be doing that for us. We have a great partnership. We at Cornerstone love utilizing local businesses and want to support them in any way we can.”

Downtown and economic development

Brooks also co-owns, along with Phil Wills, one of the most prominent buildings in downtown Muncie, the Heath Iron Building along Walnut Street.

Downstairs, the building is home to Muncie Ballet Studio and photographer Rick Hunt. Upstairs are 12 apartments in three floors that are regularly occupied.

Before the ballet studio and photography studio, the commercial space downstairs was home to a short-lived and unique downtown feature: A food court with several eateries. The food court opened in February 2005 with four businesses, but the effort didn’t last. The final business in the food court closed near the end of 2006.

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“The retail was our tough part,” Brooks said. “The food court didn’t make it, and even after that went out, we had trouble finding people. Now we have Rick Hunt and Muncie Ballet Studio. They’re steady and it works out really well.”

Brooks, who has co-owned the building since 2003, said downtown Muncie’s growth is about what he expected.

“It’s kind of typical, where we’re at in our little spot in Muncie,” he said. “It’s slow, steady, positive momentum. It’s not big splashes. Five years ago, it was stagnant. I thought it could go either way. The direction it’s going is steady, positive news. If you drive around Carmel or Westfield, they’re building buildings. We’re not going to have that growth, but the momentum is good.”

Brooks’ latest effort is serving as a board member of the Delaware County Redevelopment Commission, which participates in local economic development efforts.

Although his voting record, as Brooks noted, was Republican, he was appointed by Democratic Party-majority Delaware County officials to be their representative on the board.

During redevelopment commission meetings, Brooks is notable for asking questions and seeking fuller explanations than many who are appointed to some boards.

“There’s a tendency to get in there and rubber-stamp everything,” Brooks said. “You get put on this board, the next thing is you get asked to vote on things that are really complicated. I abstained a couple of times until I understood.”